Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon
J. S. Hodgin Dies, Father of Library
John S. Hodgin, father of the Enterprise public library, died at a La Grande hospital Sunday morning, May 5, 1940, following a heart attack with which he was stricken about ten days ago. Shortly after he came to Enterprise as a young lawyer in 1900 he began collecting books for a circulating library, keeping them in a room adjoining his office on the second floor of the present Berland grocery building. Others became interested in the project and the books were moved to a room in a frame building on the east side of the courthouse square. The present brick building was a gift of the Carnegie Foundation, and the movement which led to obtaining this gift originated with Dr. C. T. Hockett.
John Simeon Hodgin was born February 26, 1864, in North Carolina, the son of James Nelson Hodgin and Martha E. (Russell) Hodgin. Following his attendance at the Guilford college, N. C., he came west in 1889 and entered the University of Oregon the following year. In 1891 he entered Pacific University and in June of that year graduated with a BS degree. He took post-graduate work in mathematics and astronomy at Stanford University in 1893 and entered Lick observatory and studied astronomy in 1894.
He was admitted to the Oregon state bar at Salem in June 1898, and practiced law at Enterprise from 1900 to 1907, in which year he moved to La Grande and entered into partnership with F. S. Ivanhoe, the partnership being dissolved in 1909, since which time he had practiced alone.
Mr. Hodgin has served a district attorney of Union County and in 1937 was appointed a member of the Hydroelectric commission of Oregon and served until his death.
He was united in marriage to Miss Minnie. J. Elton August 15, 1917, and he is survived by his widow and one daughter, Sylvia, who is a senior at the Oregon State College.
Source: Enterprise Chieftain, May 9, 1940, Page 8
Contributed by: Sue Wells